Chapter 18: Gangwhado

Ganghwado.

‘This was where that bastard first appeared.’

The one Taehoo referred to as “that bastard” was none other than the Wounded Ancient Dragon he had discovered in his previous life.

The Dragon that revealed itself to the world rampaged across the surface of Ganghwado, and only the First Generation Hunters barely managed to stop it.

But that was all—they could only halt the destruction. The land of Ganghwado was transformed into a place where no human could live.

So it remained for half a century.

People who had no place on ordinary land began to gather here.

Unable to survive above ground, they burrowed beneath it.

Sewer.

This was how the Underground City came to be.

In two or three years, this place would become a city of wild dogs,

‘But that’s not now… If there aren’t even wild dogs yet, then this is just a gathering place for the bottom of the barrel.

What business could anyone possibly have here…?’

That was all.

There wasn’t much Taehoo could guess. He idly looked around at the scenery of the sewer.

[What a filthy place.]

People reeking of alcohol and drugs lay sprawled about, and the streets were filled with a stench made up of every foul odor imaginable.

Ba’al’s brief impression summed up the entire street perfectly.

‘So it was really no different even before the wild dogs showed up.’

It was so similar to when he wandered this land as a wild dog himself that it sent chills down his spine.

‘I was the same.’

The people collapsed on the streets reminded him of himself in his previous life, before he met Hunter Namjin.

Back then, he would barely survive each mission, spend his reward on pleasures, and try to forget reality for a while. Those days now felt so distant.

‘Why here, of all places?’

Except for the incident two years from now, this land was truly insignificant, which only made him more curious.

“We’ll be heading to the Black Market from here.”

Nachal’s words seemed to answer the question in Taehoo’s heart.

‘The incident that turned the sewers upside down also started there. Don’t tell me, the prelude to what’s going to happen two years later has already begun?’

With that reasonable suspicion in mind—

“Young master, you’ll need to become a product in the Black Market.”

“What?!”

Taehoo’s train of thought came to a screeching halt.

Of course, it was a shocking statement.

To suddenly be told to become a product for the Black Market—anyone would react the same way.

However, Taehoo felt he’d shown a bit too much agitation and his face flushed for a moment.

‘Is this person just trying to fluster me on purpose…?’

Is Nachal the type to joke around like this?

“If you’re going to tease me, you’d better explain properly.”

“Of course. I’ll explain the details once we’re in a quiet lodging. Let’s move.”

Nachal took the lead, and Muncheol followed behind.

As he did, Muncheol avoided Taehoo’s gaze, pretending not to notice his earlier embarrassment.

‘Hmph… Somehow, that’s even more annoying?’

[Kuh, your disciple and teacher are really in sync, aren’t they?]

Ba’al snickered, reading Taehoo’s flustered emotions.

“Hoo.”

Taehoo calmed himself and followed the two. His embarrassment didn’t last long.

‘A product in the Black Market… Now that things have turned out this way, there are some things I can guess.’

The Black Market in the sewers.

After the appearance of the Gates, civilization had greatly declined.

Nations lost much of their power, while the strength of Hunter Clans with abilities grew, and as a result, public order hit rock bottom.

The government was so overwhelmed trying to prevent monsters from invading major cities that it had no resources to police places like this.

‘A little bribery and the lingering Dragon magic on the surface both played a part.’

The Black Market was one of the poisonous weeds that grew in the absence of law and order.

As its name implied, all sorts of illegal goods were traded here—including humans.

‘If an assassin needs to become a product in the Black Market, there’s only one reason.’

Infiltration.

For whatever reason, sometimes you had to infiltrate the place you were being sold to. That was the only scenario that made sense.

“These days, there’s someone in the Black Market targeting kids around thirteen to fifteen years old.”

Nachal began the briefing after securing a small lodging.

From this point on, he dropped the unnecessary honorifics, as if signaling the start of the mission.

Taehoo didn’t mind, and instead confirmed that Nachal’s earlier words matched his own expectations.

‘Either the one sweeping up the kids, or whoever’s backing them, must be the target of this mission.’

With that personal guess in mind—

“They’re sweeping up children? For what exactly?”

Would this matter be connected to the incident two or three years from now? That was the question he needed answered.

“It seems they’re picking out the promising ones to raise as assassins. Their actions are too suspicious to ignore. It also looks like they’re trying to establish a new clan.”

I see.

Taehoo’s gaze deepened. It was clear. The incident that would later turn the sewers upside down was connected to this mission.

‘The violent clash between the precursor of the Belial House and the Dantalion House ten years from now was already famous.’

The story of two absolute evils—both connected to Demons—colliding and turning the sewers into a wasteland again was often spoken of in his previous life.

Back then, the precursor of the Belial House had expanded by sweeping up children from the Black Market.

After raising those assassins for two or three years, they clashed violently.

After that, the wild dogs took over the empty ruins once again.

‘There were even rumors about the Third Family being involved. If that’s the case, maybe it wasn’t just a baseless rumor.’

That was all.

Taehoo’s thoughts began to organize themselves in his mind.

“What’s the target’s name?”

“His name is Jin-tae Kim. He’s the one buying up children, and also the target we both need to eliminate.”

As expected, he was right. Jin-tae Kim. The man who would become the master of the Belial House in the war a decade later.

Taehoo, who had been cannon fodder in that war, was all too familiar with the name.

‘To think he was trying to establish a clan even back then. And that our clan was involved as well… That’s surprising.’

There had always been strange things about the war between the two clans.

From his position at the bottom, it had seemed like a war with no justification or reason.

But if the Dantalion House had stopped Jin-tae Kim from establishing his clan at this point—

The mysterious puzzle pieces he hadn’t understood back then now fit together.

Until the war broke out, the Belial House had grown into one of Korea’s top intelligence organizations.

[Heh, those nobodies were making fools of themselves while I was gone.]

Ba’al, having listened quietly to the names of the Demons being mentioned, suddenly cut in.

Well, as the number one Demon in the hierarchy, it was only natural for Ba’al to say something like that.

‘But when it comes to clan wars, that’s a different matter.’

The fights between humans were definitely different from those between gods.

Of course, there were times when followers became Possessions, but that was a different story.

‘This is a bigger opportunity than I thought. I might be able to fish for Belial’s power.’

Authority of the First Demon.

Taehoo possessed a skill that allowed him to absorb the power of any Constellation, and now a chance to infiltrate the Belial House was before him.

‘If I put my mind to it, I can gain a lot from this.’

Nachal watched Taehoo closely as he organized his thoughts.

‘It would be good if Muncheol learned some of that assertiveness from him this time.’

Thinking of his overly-devoted disciple, he continued.

“If you can take out the target, there’s no time limit. But don’t push yourself too hard—even if you fail, just make sure you come back alive. According to my research, Jin-tae Kim is a dangerous man, so be especially careful.”

He added several warnings.

‘So this is why our clan was only rumored to be a third party.’

For both Taehoo and Muncheol, this mission was ultimately a live test.

The life of the infiltrating assassin was more important than the target’s.

Even if the precursor of the Belial House was dangerous, it wasn’t enough to seriously threaten the clan.

Success would be nice, but failure didn’t matter much—just that level.

In fact, Nachal seemed to think the chances of success were low.

But—

‘I know the timing and roughly what will happen in the incident two years from now. I have an overwhelming information advantage.’

Using that—

‘I’ll make sure to succeed.’

Nachal’s judgment and Taehoo’s resolve were completely different.

He would definitely complete the mission successfully.

“Gather all the information on useful people I can use during the mission. While you’re at it, investigate all the products in the Black Market that are around my age. You can at least do that much, right?”

That was all.

He even added a bit of provocation at the end on purpose.

Nachal’s eyes flashed at Taehoo’s words, but he didn’t show it openly.

‘He seems to have studied, but theory and practice are completely different.’

Nachal considered failure to be a valuable experience, and smiled faintly.

“Of course, I can prepare that for you.”

Since Taehoo’s final request was more of an order than a request, Nachal replied in a polite tone.

With that, the long briefing was over.

‘Jin-tae Kim.’

Taehoo repeated the familiar name to himself once more.

The name Taehoo recalled:

Jin-tae Kim.

He was currently the only follower of Belial.

Ting.

Fingers so slender they could be called delicate flicked a coin into the air and caught it again and again.

Wearing loose black clothes and a hood, his pale skin stood out even more.

Between the mask and the hood, his brown eyes curved like a crescent moon.

Jin-tae sat in a chair, his back to the moonlight.

“Our Constellation may only have me as a follower, but I’m quite skilled as an assassin. The fact that I’m standing here in front of you is proof of that.”

Before him, a terrified man and woman kneeled, clinging to each other for support.

A mistress from a wealthy family and the man she’d had an affair with.

And the head of the family who’d commissioned their deaths. Truly a mess.

Of course, to Jin-tae, it didn’t matter—if he could clean up this kind of filth and get paid, that was all that mattered.

He almost wished there’d be more jobs like this, at least until he had enough money to buy more children.

“Well, don’t blame me. Blame the client.”

Ting.

The coin soared into the air again, and before it could fall back into his palm, a dagger appeared in Jin-tae’s hand.

“I have to live a long life, after all.”

Slice! Thud!

In an instant, the man’s head flew off, and the dagger plunged into the woman’s throat.

Their bodies convulsed, trembling like aspen leaves.

Jin-tae snatched the coin before it could hit the ground.

“Keuk… keuk!”

The woman’s dying gasps echoed in the small room.

In the intermittent silence that followed—

“There was also a condition to make the woman’s death as painful as possible. Sorry about that~”

Jin-tae murdered both of them in a single night, then left the room.

With this job, he’d gathered enough money to buy more children from the Black Market.

‘I’ll build my own clan.’

That was why he needed to survive for a long time, and the force that drove Jin-tae Kim.

The next day, Taehoo and Muncheol finished disguising themselves as children about to be sold at auction.

They smeared filth all over their bodies and made their hair wild. They even doused themselves in sewage for extra detail.

Nachal was impressed at how Taehoo accepted the whole process without hesitation.

“You’re really good at this, almost like you’ve done it before?”

Even Muncheol was surprised enough to comment.

He’d expected Taehoo, who had lived as a young master, to feel some resistance.

But Taehoo, the person in question, was completely indifferent.

No, rather—

‘First, I need to confirm whether the person I remember really is him.’

He was organizing what he needed to do in his mind.

He drew on his experiences as a wild dog for whatever was necessary.

Nachal, too, finished his disguise as a merchant and headed for the Black Market.

They went deeper and deeper into the Underground City’s sewers, into the place with the thickest stench.

And then, suddenly, the smell vanished. That was where the Black Market was.

A place in Korea where all kinds of illegal goods were traded.

That was where Taehoo’s group set foot.

Inside, the facilities were so impressive it was hard to believe it was the same place as before.

You couldn’t escape the mustiness unique to underground places, but at least there was no foul odor. Even the interiors looked carefully maintained.

Since a lot of money flowed through this place, it was well managed.

“I’d like to put some goods up for auction.”

With Nachal’s words, the real mission began. Taehoo braced himself.